By Solomon "Customs" Bridges
DA NANG, Vietnam — On the flight deck where fighter jets normally launch, Vietnamese sailors and civilians posed for photographs this weekend, guests aboard the USS George Washington during a routine port call that began July 31.
The Nimitz-class carrier, the Navy calls it "forward-deployed" — meaning it's based abroad, in Japan, ready to move — brought sailors ashore for something less martial than soccer: matches against Vietnamese sailors on Aug. 1, and open tours that let ordinary visitors walk a flight deck built for combat. Photos released by U.S. Central Command show Vietnamese guests posing near the ship's island, teenagers snapping pictures, sailors from both countries lining up for a friendly kickabout.
The Navy describes the ship as "a long-standing symbol of the United States' commitment to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific," operating with allies across the 7th Fleet, the Navy's largest.
What the press materials don't say, because they don't need to, is what a U.S. aircraft carrier tied up in Da Nang harbor means to anyone who remembers what this stretch of coast looked like fifty years ago. This is the region's arithmetic now: China's growing navy on one side of the ledger, Vietnam's careful hedging on the other, and Washington angling for a foothold with soccer balls and flight-deck tours rather than landing craft.
No weapons changed hands here, no agreements were signed. It was, by the Navy's own account, a scheduled visit — the kind that happens routinely across a fleet built to be seen as much as used. But in a region where every port call gets read as a signal, this one was read plenty.
[Editor's note: Sourcing for this item is limited to U.S. Navy-released photo captions via DVIDS; no independent Vietnamese government or press comment was available.]
— Compiled from U.S. Navy photo releases distributed by U.S. Central Command via DVIDS.
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